Sunday, 7 February 2016

Sushma Swaraj: Indians taken hostage by ISIS in Mosul are alive

Sushma Swaraj: Indians taken hostage by ISIS in Mosul are alive

New Delhi: The 39 Indians
taken hostage by ISIS more than one-and-a-half-years ago from Mosul in
Iraq were alive, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told their
families here today, based on her recent meetings with Arab and
Palestinian leaders who indicated to this effect.

Swaraj, who had sought a meeting with
the families which is the ninth since the abduction of these Indians in
June 2014, also assured them that the government was "fully and
continuously engaged" and "every possible effort" was being made to
ensure their release. According to official sources, the minister told them that during a
meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader informed
her that the "Indians are alive and made to work" in war-torn Iraq as
per his government's intelligence information. Swaraj had travelled to
Palestine and Israel on January 17 and 18.
The minister also referred to her visit to Bahrain on January 23 for
the first India-Arab League Cooperation Forum and said during the
meeting, a declaration was adopted which said, "The two sides expressed
concern at the kidnapping of 39 Indian workers in Mosul in Iraq in June
2014 and 3 Indian workers in Sirte in Libya in June 2015.

"The Arab side expressed full solidarity with India in all efforts
for their early release from captivity." The Indians were kidnapped by
Islamic militant group ISIS from a construction site in Mosul.